Michael Bisping holding out hope for rematch with a championship-wearing Chael Sonnen

UFC middleweight Michael Bisping may be sidelined at the moment with a knee injury but he’s already got designs on an opponent for his return bout – Chael Sonnen. The two fought to a close decision earlier this year with the judges scoring things in Sonnen’s favor and the court of public opinion ruling the other way.

Though Sonnen is currently busy preparing for a crack at beating 185-pound king Anderson Silva on July 7 at UFC 148, if all goes according to plan he will be ready to compete again around the same time Bisping has recovered fully. With a potential title in tow, Bisping apparently sees an opportunity to both settle the controversy surrounding their earlier meeting in addition to putting on an entertaining championship bout.

“It was a close fight with Chael Sonnen, but the general consensus is that I won the fight. So, if Chael beats Anderson, and that’s a big if – IF Chael beats Anderson, then I would like a rematch. I would like my instant rematch with Chael,” said Bisping yesterday on The MMA Hour. “Everybody else gets their rematches. Frankie Edgar gets his, I don’t know, everybody seems to get a rematch if it’s a close fight so I would like my rematch and I would like to fight Chael for the rematch and for the belt.”

“I think I’ve done enough to warrant a title-shot,” he continued. “I’ve been around the sport long enough. I’ve been consistent. I’m on a good win streak. Apart from a couple of bogus decisions I’ve never lost a fight since the Dan Henderson fight.”

The 22-4 Bisping had won four straight entering his bout with Sonnen and hasn’t fought since. Those consecutive victories came against Dan Miller, Yoshihiro Akiyama, Jorge Rivera, and Jason Miller. He undergoes surgery tomorrow to repair his knee and will miss about a month while rehabbing.

Michael, Michael, Michael. I know all your yes men are saying you won that fight, but the “general consensus” is that you didn’t. You’re great at smashing top 15-30 opponents, that’s you thing, own that. I know you’ve been around forever, but longevity alone is not a road to the championship, you have to Beat top 10 opponents to get title shots. Maybe you should stop taking fights with the Millers, and Rivera’s of the division and start fighting the Stann’s, Vitors, and Munoz of the division. You’re like Diaz in that you’re good enough to be in the top 10 even though you’ve never beaten a top 10.

MCM- I’m inclined to disagree. Although the divisions rankings have changed ( a natural changing of the guard, if you will) I see Bisbing in the upper teir. What really stands out to me, however, is his willingness to fight for the title. Now, hear me out.

Bisping is obviously eager to fight Sonnen for the strap… But significantly less eager to fight Anderson. Over the past few years, anytime that Anderson’s name comes up, Bisping’s respone is along the lines of “Well, we’ll have to see what happens. I wanna get back to the drawing board. I need to improve, etc.” Even in this article, his emphasis is on fighting Sonnen for the title, but no mention of fighting Silva if he retains it.

It was close, but I thought Sonnen won. The fight didn’t really help Sonnen, though, because he didn’t look nearly as dangerous as he did in his title fight with Silva. Sonnen probably loses to Silva in that rematch, but it could be competitive because of Sonnen’s wrestling. Bisping has only wrestling defense and better than average striking without much power. Put Bisping in with Silva and Bisping doesn’t see the third round.

BBB – I hear you on the rankings, but the only fighter that we even close to top when they fought was Dan Miller. Bisping is definitely upper tier, he just needs to start winning against other upper tier fighters.

And I find it very odd that he won’t call out Silva as I think that would be a very competitive fight and that Bisping stands a better chance of wining than any other MW not named Chael Sonnen.

You’re like Diaz in that you’re good enough to be in the top 10 even though you’ve never beaten a top 10.

MCM hit the nail on the head. Guys like Diaz and Bisping are really good fighters, but I’d like to see them go thru the same gauntlet of top contenders like everyone else before being rewarded with a title shot.

I don’t blame Bisping for trying though, Thing is, short of a miracle there’s just no way Chael beats Silva. But I’ll run thru both scenarios just for kicks.

If Chael were somehow to win… is there any doubt Anderson would be granted an immediate rematch? He’s had the greatest championship run in UFC history, and he and Chael would each hold a win over the other. So the rubber match would be inevitable. So just like in the LW division, the rest of the top contenders would be left jockeying for position in the meantime.

Much more likely, after Anderson stomps Chael, then I’d like to see Lombard get the next crack at the belt, assuming he dispatches of Boetsch in impressive fashion. If not Lombard, the picture is pretty murky. Munoz would probably be the most deserving if he can get by Wiedman. But if Munoz loses, which could certainly happen, Wiedman aint ready for (or deserving of) a shot at Anderson. Hell, if Lombard and Munoz both lose… yikes. Then there’s nobody ready to fight Silva. But that’s pretty unlikely… chances are Silva beats Sonnen, and he faces either Lombard or Munoz next. From a rankings & “fairness” standpoint, Munoz might be more deserving. But from an intrigue standpoint, I’d rather see Lombard take a crack at the champ. And given Silva’s age, I’m all for the UFC making the most interesting matchups for him at this stage of his career, even if it goes a bit against the grain.

So back on topic, regardless of the outcome of the Chael-Silva fight, Bisping isn’t particularly close to a title shot and will need to be at least one top contender to eventually find himself in that position.

And also, there’s just no way a striker without KO power (i.e. Bisping) beats Silva. Expecting to exchange on the feet with Silva for 5 rounds, and come out the victor, is about as likely as my powerball ticket hitting.

If he doesn’t retire first, Silva will eventually lose to a guy with power, who happens to catch him, or to a wrestler who can hold him down for the bulk of the fight (especially if Anderson has a cracked rib).

Richard, if you think Bisping has no KO power then you don’t know what you’re talking about.

This reminds me of when everyone said Cain had pillow hands right before he fought Big Nog. Any HW has enough power in their punches to KO someone.

Bisping doesn’t have one shot KO power (neither does Silva), but he does get TKOs through landing a heavy volume of power punches. Bisping is a pretty strong athletic MW and its ridiculous to think that when he has a 63% KO/TKO ratio and an 81% finish ratio that he doesn’t have KO power.

By KO power I’m talking about the ability to land a single game-changing strike.

Bisping has shown the technical striking ability with enough power behind it to finish guys with multiple shots (albeit non-top contenders). But there’s a clear distinction between that and the one shot power than can immediately turn out the lights. Bisping has not shown he possesses that, and striking exchanges with Anderson Silva don’t tend to last very long. So without that big time power… well, good luck trying to pick Anderson apart on the feet.

As for Silva, while not regarded as that type of one shot guy, like Hendo with the H-bomb and other guys who really load up, off the top of my head I can think of 3 guys who were–for all intents & purposes–finished by a single Silva strike – James Irvin, Forrest & Belfort.

MCM – have to disagree about Silva being competitive. Bisping’s skills are opposite to, and counter Sonnen’s some, so it was a competitive fight. But Silva has essentially the same skills as Bisping, except much much better. That fight would be lucky to get out of round 3.

and James Ervin and Forrest as well Mike
This is by far biggest bowl of shit coming out of Shitsbings mouth and he says alot of shit.
So he wants a shot at the title coming off a loss?? Fuck what he says about a instant rematch cause its not a instant rematch if the guy who beat you (and he clearly did) has already had a fight. There is no logic to anything he says. REALLY???? Compareing your decsion loss to Frankies 5 round fight??? God this guy is a tool. AND his lack of talk about a fight with the Spider just shows the kind of coward he is deep down.
he better just get comfortable with his gatekeeper/a guy everyone wants to see get his face smashed in status cause like MCM already pointed out thats all hes good for

In the complete statement Bisping made he does mention that he would love a shot at a all time great like Anderson, just that he feels IF Sonnen wins he should get a rematch, like Edgar does after every fight, with Chael because there fight was very close and for sure if they had 2 more rounds Bisping would have won, not to mention Bisping took it on short notice and with a full camp and 5 rounds I think Bisping takes Sonnen.
Also wanted to reply to Angry Mike that a striker like Bisping doesnt stand a chance with Anderson, remember Sonnen has never been known as a power puncher and he knocked Anderson down with one well timed well placed shot so I wouldnt be shocked at all if Bisping did the same.

“If Anderson wins, sure I’d take the title fight, I said IF Chael wins. Listen, Anderson Silva is the greatest fighter in the history of the sport, he is an absolute legend and it will be an honor to fight him, that’s what I wanted to do my whole career.”

Bisping vs. Belcher upon their returns. How could anyone think that wouldnt be an exciting fight. The Count is very similar to Rich Franklin or Nick Diaz, he’s not known for KOing people with a punch or evern rocking them to change the game with one shot, but he overwhelms them with rapid fire combos, great footwork and primarily, insane cardio. He’s got a champions chin (When you’ve fought guys like Wandy, Kang who might not be a world beater but does posses a great right hand and Hendo and the latter is the only to KO you senseless that’s not bad) and he’s always got a solide gameplan(i.e. against Leben he point fought and made it a very technical fight when Leben wanted to wade in and brawl).
Now as for Belcher, he hasnt lost since that very debatable decision to Akiyama and since then he has been pulling off some of the most spectacular victories in the MW decision (face planting and choking out Cote, Bulldozing MacDonald and Gouviea and most impressively outgrappling Palhares and pouding him into the ground). He’s recently shown outstanding cardio and has a great story of rising to the top of the UFC after some stumbles and numerous injuries(the eye being the scariest).
The story is there, the ranking us there and it solves the very real problem that Rich mentioned earlier of having two top contenders fighting tough fights that wont produce contenders should Munoz and Lombard both lose.
Both have the longevity, skillsets and fan recognition to be competitive with Anderson(well….more competitive than anyone other than Munoz, Lombard, or Chael) and just as important to the UFC brass sell the fight. Both talk some great trash. I cant see how Im the one to think of this.

Bisping vs. Belcher sounds good to me, and based on thecomments coming off the Palhares victory Belcher is down with the idea…

“Bisping, of course, is getting to be a professional point fighter, and he’s kind of hard to beat like that. That fight would be a nice payday, and a big fight for the media, so I’m kind of leaning towards that one. It would make sense, and the fans would love it. I can almost feel the energy I would get from the fans if I put him to sleep. I can already kind of feel the kind of smack talking that he would be doing, and I think that he just honestly believes that he’s better than he is. I don’t think he respects me or considers me to be one of the top guys. It would feel good to beat him, but I don’t want to let those type of personal emotions get in the way of what’s really important, and that’s competing for the world championship and winning.”

Sucks that so many of these guys are currently sidelined dealing with injuries, but if the recovery times work out then Bisping-elcher and Belfort-tann would be nice. And the winners of those fights could potentially square off in a #1 contender bout, to face the Silva-Lombard victor.

That’s what I’d like to see anyway, event though I know I’m getting way ahead of things and very slim chance it would actually happen. As usual, there are lots of moving parts and the results of Munoz-Weidman and Lombard-Boetsch will certainly play a role in how things shake out at the top of the division.